november 22nd, 2017

Note: This op-ed originally appeared in Fox News and was written by John Prendergast.

The region of the world U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley is traveling to this week isn’t in the headlines very often, but it has been one of the most dangerous neighborhoods globally for decades. Ambassador Haley will visit South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, part of the deadliest region in the world since the Second World War.

The number of deaths resulting from violent conflict during the past three decades alone in South Sudan and Congo approaches eight million. Both are semi-authoritarian states, marked by well-developed kleptocracies in which the ruling cliques have hijacked their governing institutions and repurposed them for private financial gain. While billions of humanitarian and peacekeeping aid dollars flow in every year, billions have flown out into the hidden accounts of the countries’ leaders and their commercial collaborators, both domestic and international.

These are not poor countries. They have immense natural resource wealth in the form of gold, oil, diamonds, cobalt, copper, tin, other important minerals, and ivory from elephants. These extraordinary national assets are lining the pockets of the countries’ leaders rather than spearheading economic development and prosperity.

In both countries, wars have raged in large part because their rulers allow no peaceful way to share wealth and power. Absent democratic processes or basic freedoms, some marginalized populations rise in armed revolt. In some countries in Africa and around the world, wars have produced effective peace processes, which when handled competently have led to peacefully settled disputes and properly functioning and accountable governing institutions.